


Bad Time at the Border

by julliangray



Category: The A-Team (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Language, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:29:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22328614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/julliangray/pseuds/julliangray
Summary: Missing scene from Bad Time at the Border, what happened on the boat, and before Hannibal walked into the bar.
Relationships: Templeton "Faceman" Peck/John "Hannibal" Smith
Comments: 7
Kudos: 36





	Bad Time at the Border

Yacht heading from LA to Mexico

"You're a terrific shade of green; you know, brings out the color of your eyes." Hannibal smiled at Face around his cigar.

"You don't have a plan, do you?" Face groused as he leaned against the bathroom door, a bottle of pills clutched tightly in his left hand.

"Of course, I have a plan, but," Hannibal grinned. “it's a secret." 

Hannibal's smile widened as he blew a puff of smoke into the younger man's face, causing him to hurry back into the bathroom, heaving up what little he had left in his stomach. As Murdock went on reciting verses from Moby Dick, he couldn't help but smile over at his sergeant.

"Should have taken a plane, right, BA?" Hannibal laughed before going back to reading his racing form.

***Later that Evening***

"Come on, kid; you can't be feeling that bad." Hannibal knocked on the bathroom door. "Even BA is over the worst of it."

"Leave me alone; you had your fun." Face moaned from behind the closed door.

"Face, we're going to be docking in Mexico in an hour, and I expect to see you up on deck ready to go."

The only answer Hannibal got was the sound of retching. Shaking his head, Hannibal moved back up to the top deck.

***Cabo San Lucas Marina****

"All right, Face; enough is enough. You've made your point that you would rather fly." Hannibal growled as he banged on the boat's bathroom door. "Get your ass out here, Lieutenant!"

"Hannibal, we have everything ready to go." BA stuck his head down below deck.

"Well, as soon as I can get his majesty out of the bathroom…" Hannibal stopped talking when he noticed a bottle of pills sitting on a shelf. Picking it up, he re-readd the label confirming they were for motion sickness, which means that Face was taking a different medication that what he’d originally thought. 

"Damn," He shook his head. "BA, you, Amy, and Murdock take our luggage to the Cabo Inn; Face and I will be right behind you."

"What's going on, man?"

"Just do as you are told, Sergeant." Hannibal's tone left no room for argument, and the big man just nodded before moving to follow the older man's orders.

Hannibal waited until he knew the others were off the boat before moving back to the bathroom door.

"Face, I'm coming in, kid." Hannibal turned the handle on the door. Finding it locked, he put his boot on the cheap lock and kicked. It started to swing open but stopped half-way when it came in contact with Face's leg. Moving into the cramped, dark room, Hannibal crouched down next to the younger man, whose head was resting on the side of the toilet, vomit staining his once pristine white shirt.

"Tem, why didn't you tell me?" Hannibal tipped the younger man's chin up so he could look into the pain-filled blue-green eyes.

"Thought it might go away." Face offered him a weak smile before retching again.

"Templeton," Hannibal moved his hand from the younger man's chin to his cheek.

"Nothing you could have done," Face moaned as he pushed back away from the toilet and wrapped his arms around his head. Hannibal picked up the bottle of pills that were lying on the floor beside his lover’s legs.

"How many have you taken?"

"Four,"

"And they're obviously not helping," Hannibal sighed as he opened the bottle and shook out four more pills, holding them out to Face as he slid the bottle into his jacket pocket.

"Can't; we have a case." 

"You let me worry about the case." Hannibal pulled Face's arm away from his head and placed the pills in his hand. "Take them."

"Just leave me alone for a while. I'll be okay," Face said before he started gagging on the pills as he dry swallowed them.

"Come on, kid, try to keep them down, or you're just going to have to do it again." Hannibal rubbed Face's arm, trying to offer him some support.

They sat in the dark, cramped bathroom allowing the medication time to ease some of the pain before Hannibal decided to get them off the boat. 

"Come on, Tem; let's get you to the hotel where you can get some proper rest."

"Just let me stay here. I'll join you later."

"Face,"

"Please..."

"I can't, kid." Hannibal reached out and gently brushed the sweaty hair out of Face's eyes. "And even if I could, I wouldn't leave you on this boat alone."

Carefully Hannibal slid his hands under the younger man's arms, pulling him to his feet. As Face started to sway, Hannibal pulled him close to his side. 

Twenty minutes later, Hannibal helped Face out of the cab in front of the Cabo Inn. He was just about to go to the office to find out what rooms the rest of the team was in when BA stepped out of the shadows. The big man took one look at Face as Hannibal practically held him upright and shook his head.

"You got to tell someone, little brother,"

"Now is not the time," Hannibal softly warned. "Where are our rooms?"

"In the back; rooms 31 and 32." BA nodded towards the back part of the little inn. "There was a mix-up in our rooms. Instead of giving us three, they gave us a double, and Amy is in a single room next to ours."

"She's going to be bunking with you and Murdock tonight."

"On it, Colonel!" BA quickly moved ahead of the other two men.

By the time Hannibal and Face made it to the back part of the motel, BA and Murdock had Amy packed and moved into their room while the reporter continued to argue with them.

"I don't see why I have to share a room with you guys. There is more than enough room for the four of you!"

"Cut the noise and just do what you are told to do, Allen," Hannibal snarled as he moved Face past her and into the single room. "If you can't, then pack your crap and go home."

"Hannibal!" she started to protest, but BA stopped her by placing a hand on her arm.

"You don't want to argue with him right now."

"What's going on?" Amy looked at BA, who was staring at the now-closed door. "BA?"

"It started in General Chao's prison camp." Murdock sighed from the open door of his and BA's room.   
“Go inside; this ain’t no one else’s business,” BA growled as he looked around to make sure they weren’t being watched. 

***

"You have to understand that Face has a mouth on him."

"I noticed that he likes to talk and can charm the pants, anyone." The reporter rolled her eyes. 

"No," Murdock shook his head. "When I tell you Face has a mouth, I mean he has a smart-assed mouth and a temper to go along with it. He might seem easy-going, but he's far from it, and when he's wound up, you don't want to be anywhere near him. You get him pissed off, and he will make BA look like a big old teddy bear."

"He doesn't seem like that." Amy stared at the pilot in disbelief. 

"Hannibal has worked really hard with him to help him get rid of that anger." BA looked over at Murdock, who nodded.

"So, what does that have to do with what’s happening now?"

"It has everything to do with it. When we first met Face, he had no sense of self-preservation. If you pissed him off or made him angry, he would let you have it with both barrels."

"What does that have to do with now?"

"What's happening now is because of back then." Murdock took off his hat and ran a hand through his thinning hair. "We were in General Chao's POW camp…"

***  
"Come on, Tem, let's get you undressed and in bed."  
Hannibal knelt in front of Face as the younger man sat on the side of the bed with his hand arms wrapped around his head, rocking back and forth. Reaching out, Hannibal unbuttoned Face's shirt before maneuvering him further up in the bed so he could remove the younger man's shoes, socks, and pants before laying him down.

As soon as Hannibal had him flat on his back, Face curled up into a fetal position, covering his head with his arms once more. Hannibal quickly moved into the bathroom and wet a couple of washcloths, along with a towel. He wrung out as much water as he could before returning to Face's side. He folded one towel in half lengthwise before, carefully pulling Face's hands away, then wrapping it around the upper part of the younger man's head, making sure to cover his eyes.   
As with the towel, Hannibal folded the washcloth in half and placed it on the back of Face's neck. Then, taking the last cloth, he wiped Face's body down. When he finished, Hannibal covered the younger man with a thin sheet before lying down beside him, pulling his lover into his arms, resting the blonde head on his chest.

"It's going to be all right, baby," Hannibal whispered as he rubbed Face's back. "It's going to be all right,"

***

"The guards were harassing the prisoners, and Hannibal was protesting our treatment. General Chao decided that he'd had enough of Hannibal's complaints and was going to make an example out of him. They dragged him out in front of the holding pens and forced Hannibal to kneel where Chao was going to beat him with a bamboo cane."

Murdock closed his eyes and took a deep breath as the memories of what happened next came pouring in.

"When the guards dragged Hannibal out of the holding pens, they didn't secure the door. Guess they figured they didn't need to, but they didn't know Face. He came charging out of that cage, cursing at the top of his lungs in Vietnamese. I know enough of the language to get a good idea of what he was saying, and what I didn't know I could figure out by the expressions on the guard's faces.”

“The look on Chao's face was one of pure murder. If Face planned to make them forget about Hannibal, it worked: the guards were on Face like white on rice. No matter how hard they beat him, they couldn’t shut him up; just kept running his mouth. The thing that finally stopped Face's tirade was a blow to the back of the head with a rifle butt. You could hear the sound of Face's skull cracking from across the compound."

"I thought he was dead, the way he went down." BA turned to look out the motel window. "Didn't think anyone could live through that."

"I guess Chao figured that Face wouldn't, either, and it would lower our morale to watch Face die a slow, painful death, so they threw him back into the holding pin with us. It was a rough three days. Hannibal was beside himself, switching from anger at Face for getting himself injured and raging at Chao and the guards for hurting him.

"On the fourth day, Face regained consciousness, but he was hurting so bad I almost wished he had died. He wrapped his arms around his head and just sobbed; there wasn't anything that anyone could do to ease the pain. Hannibal would hold him, never caring when Face would vomit on him. The Colonel would wipe him down as best he could and pull him back in his arms. It was almost a week before the pain abated enough for Face to start functioning on his own again. Several months later, we escaped and were sent back to the States for recovery and then training.

***

"Is the pain easing up any?" Hannibal softly asked as he noticed that Face's body was starting to relax against him.

"Yeah," Face exhaled.

"Do you want another cool cloth on your neck or head?"

"Don't go!" Face fingers fisted in the material of Hannibal's shirt, holding on as tight as possible.

"Shhh, relax; I'm not going anywhere, kid." Hannibal turned the now warm rag on the back of Face's neck over so that it was a little cooler before pulling the younger man close to him. "I've got you."

***

"We thought that was the end of it until several months afterward. We were at Ft. Bragg. Face complained that he was getting a headache and didn't want to run an obstacle course Hannibal had set up. None of us paid too much attention to him. When Face whines, he's all right; when he doesn't complain, that's when you have to call the medics." Murdock offered a slight smile before he continued.

"When we were running the course, Face kept getting slower and slower, and Hannibal got angrier and angrier. The Colonel thought Face was doing it on purpose as a way of getting back at him from making him rerun the course when he complained his head hurt.”

So when we get finished, Hannibal sent Face on a five-mile run, telling him he better have his butt back in less than thirty minutes. Thirty minutes pass, and no Face; another ten minutes pass, and Hannibal is fuming. After another five minutes passed, we set out looking for him. About a mile down the road, BA found Face curled up on his side, holding his head, writhing in pain. A series of x-rays and a bunch of tests later showed that Face had not only suffered a skull fracture when the guard hit him, but also acute subdural hematoma." When Amy gave Murdock a questioning look, he elaborated. "Blood built up in the membrane between his skull and his brain and caused damage to several different areas."

"My God!" Amy looked over at BA, who just nodded as he continued to stare out the window.

"The doctors ran all kinds of tests and determined that there was no damage to his motor skills or cognitive abilities. Thought he would be subject to severe migraine attacks for the rest of his life. The doctors were going to give Face a medical discharge, but after a few days, they changed their minds and returned him to active duty."

"Why did they do that? If Face is a liability to the team, then he should have been released."

"Hannibal's why," BA growled. "Ain't nothing or no one going to take Face away from him, and he ain't no liability! He's a member of our team and my little brother!" BA hit the table with his fist in anger.

"Let me tell you, Amy: Hannibal can tolerate a lot of things, I know that personally, but you don't ever want to get between him and Face, ever." "Murdock warned.

***Next Morning***

"How are you doing, kid?" Hannibal asked as he gently stroked the hair back out of Face's eyes before placing a cold cloth on the back of his neck. "Still hurting?"

"No, just tired." Face blinked up at the older man as he fought to stay awake.

"We can deal with tired." Hannibal leaned forward and kissed his lover's forehead. "Go back to sleep."

"What about Maria's mother?"

"We're just going to make a simple change in the plan: I'm going to go in undercover instead of you. However, none of that is going to happen until you're back on your feet, so close those beautiful eyes of yours and rest."

"I'm sorry." Face dropped his gaze, and Hannibal felt his anger building.

"Don't you do it, Templeton Peck," Hannibal warned as he gently but firmly took the younger man's chin in his hand. Carefully he tilted the blonde's head up, so they were looking eye to eye. "Don't you ever put this on yourself. None of this is your fault, none of it. Do you understand me?"

Face stared at the angry blue eyes as they bore into his for almost a minute before he gave a soft "Yes, sir,"

"Somehow, I doubt it," Hannibal sighed as he leaned forward to kiss Face's forehead. "But there's always hope." He smiled before letting go of Face's chin. "I'm going to tell the others you're doing better, and we might be able to get moving day after tomorrow."

When Face started to open his mouth, Hannibal pointed a gloved finger at him.

"And don't you dare argue with me, or I'll give you a sore ass to go with your aching head."

"Promise?" Face gave him a slight smile before rubbing the back of his hand over his tired eyes.

"Brat," Hannibal smiled back as he pulled the blankets up to Face's shoulders. "Go to sleep, and when I get back, we can argue about what you're going to eat."

"Don't want anything," Face mumbled, his eyes already closed. "Too tired to eat."

"Let the battle begin," Hannibal shook his head as he kissed Face's forehead one last time before leaving the motel room.

***Two Days Later***

A tall grubby-looking man with bright blue eyes, brown hair, wearing a blue baseball cap, a dark plaid shirt, black jeans, smoking a cigarette walked into the El Lobo bar looking for a way to get across the border.

End or should I say back to the episode.


End file.
